My Pet World: Microchip coding controversy could be putting pets’ lives at risk

Microchipping saves lives. This is an accepted fact among those in the veterinary and animal welfare community. However, some microchip companies may be compromising a system that has reunited countless numbers of pets and their owners.

Microchipping involves a chip about the size of a grain of rice being injected into the pet just beneath the surface of the skin. If a pet is then lost, a universal scanner can “read” the data on the chip — no matter which company originally sold the chip — ideally providing current contact information for the family of the pet, or at least identifying the chip provider.

The few established microchip providers have always made it easy for shelters, vets and pet owners to contact them, online and typically through a 24/7 phone number.

Until recent years, each microchip company had a distinct company ID prefix number. Today, however, at least six microchip companies have the same 900 company ID prefix number, making them nearly indistinguishable from one another. These companies appear to play by their own rules rather than by industry standards.

Increasingly, animal shelter officials are voicing frustration, even outrage, over these 900-only chip businesses, because they mislead consumers and reduce the chances of lost pets being returned.

“I can’t figure these companies out, how they’re even allowed to operate this way,” says Abby Smith, executive director of Felines and Canines, a Chicago animal shelter.

The established microchip providers have dedicated ID numbers associated with their individual companies. For example, if scanned, PetLink chips read 981, HomeAgain chips read 985 and so on. These numbers are used to look up contact information for a pet’s owner.

With the 900-only chips, the number on any individual chip could be associated with any number of companies.

“Animal shelters don’t have the time to sit on the phone and try five or six or more companies (when there’s a 900-only prefix code). We don’t even know for sure who all these companies are,” Smith says.

Meghan Conti, an animal enforcement office in Virginia Beach, Va., adds, “We’ve called these companies when lost pets have a 900-only chip prefix number — if there’s a phone number to even call. Of course, we leave a message, and to date, not ever a single phone call back. We sure don’t get pets back to owners this way. Who are these people?”

Conti answers her own rhetorical question: “The 900 companies are in the business of selling chips, all right, but obviously not in the business of recovering lost pets, which is the entire idea.”

The appeal of the 900-only chips, by all accounts, is that they simply cost less for unaware veterinarians and shelters to buy. Sometimes that savings is passed on to the general public but perhaps at the expense of a pet’s life. (Microchips typically cost $40 to $60, including registration of owner contact information.)

Buying a 900-only chip may be no bargain.

One of those 900 companies, K9Microchips, says this on its website: “We make no promise to keep information on who purchases microchips, nor to document which microchips are shipped to which customers.” The implication is that the company makes no promise to maintain a database of customers. (My emails to K9Microchips went unanswered. Reaching out to two other 900 microchip companies likewise yielded no response).

Conti and Smith aren’t the only ones who’ve been unable to reunite any dogs or cats with their owners using the data from 900-only chips.

“I’ve lost sleep over these issues because I have no doubt that pets have lost their lives,” says John Bowman, supervisor of animal welfare in Norman, Okla. “Municipal shelter systems only have so much space. If an animal can’t be identified, then there’s a cost associated for an animal to be housed in a shelter. And if the pet isn’t claimed by the owner, the reality is that not all pets get adopted.”

Conti adds, “And that poor family who lost a pet thought they were doing the right thing by microchpping, not knowing that they may have purchased one of these 900-only chips. In reality, they may never see their pet again.”

Several years back, to help people navigate the often confusing world of microchipping, the American Animal Hospital Assn., a leading proponent of chipping, began a non-branded online “pet look up service.” By entering a microchip number on the group’s website, individuals have another way to determine the company a chip belongs to. However, some 900-only companies don’t participate in this program.

Dr. Michael Cavanaugh, executive director of the American Animal Hospital Assn., said he didn’t know about the 900-chip issue. And he’s not alone.

“I’ve not spoken with a veterinarian who’s aware of the issue or a pet owner who knows about it. That’s why it’s so essential we get the word out,” Smith says.

It’s ironic that May happens to be Chip Your Pet Month.

The lesson here is buyer beware.

“Microchipping is more than about getting a microchip into a pet. It’s about pet owners updating their information when they move or change contact information, and it’s about pet recovery,” says Cavanaugh. “A microchip without a responsible recovery service means little.”

STEVE DALE hosts the nationally syndicated “Steve Dale’s Pet World” and “The Pet Minute” and is a contributing editor to USA Weekend. Send questions to petworld@stevedale.tv. Include your name, city and state or visit stevedalepetworld.com.